Australia’s National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) – the country’s sovereign investor in manufacturing capability – has invested AU$20 million in Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC), a Sydney-based company working on quantum processors.
In the announcement, the NRFC remarked upon SQC’s ability to manufacture quantum chips with atomic precision, while delivering quantum-enhanced AI products for enterprises and governments today. The NRFC also pointed out that SQC is one of Australia’s only semiconductor manufacturing companies.
NRFC funding will accelerate SQC’s growth by expanding its PAQMan™ or Precision Atom Qubit Manufacturing process. Through this, NRFC aims to support the development of next-generation atomic electronics and anchor a globally competitive quantum industry in Australia.
According to NRFC, SQC can design, produce and test new quantum chips in under one week, powered by its 14|15™ platform and fully inhouse manufacturing. Currently, the company has two products in market: Watermelon™, a quantum machine learning system, and Quantum Twins™, a quantum simulator designed to accelerate molecule and materials discovery. The company currently sells its products across a variety of sectors including energy, logistics, defence and telecommunications, with SQC customer Telstra reporting a dramatic reduction in model training time with the Watermelon processor.
The NRFC’s funding is part of a larger SQC funding round. The company’s existing investors include CBA, Telstra, UNSW, the NSW Government and the Commonwealth Government of Australia.
